COMPREHENDING ORTHOGRAPHY - SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF LETTER-SOUND SYSTEMS IN MONOLINGUAL AND BILINGUAL PROGRAMS

A new perspective is needed on the 'great debate' in literacy instruct ion. Rather than the current dichotomy between whole language and phon ics, we propose an approach that integrates comprehension and decoding into a system designed around the principles of student-centered, aut hentic instruction in a socially engaging context. This approach refle cts the research on meta-cognitive and social-constructive literacy. W e discuss concepts and practices for realizing these principles in pro grams for students in US schools whose native language is English and those for whom Spanish is the language of the home. We consider the ad vantages of bilingual programs that promote awareness of the function of print codes within and across languages.